snatch their empire from the Medes, but he could in no wise take it;
then a cloud hid the face of the sun and blotted out the light
thereof, until the inhabitants were gone out of the city, and so it
was taken. By the side of this city there was a stone pyramid in
breadth a hundred feet, and in height two hundred feet; in it were
many of the barbarians who had fled for refuge from the neighbouring
villages.

[1] Larissa, on the side of the modern Nimrud (the south-west corner,
as is commonly supposed, of Nineveh). The name is said to mean
"citadel," and is given to various Greek cities (of which several
occur in Xenophon).

[2] I.e. Cyrus the Great.

From this place they marched one stage of six parasangs to a great
deserted fortress [which lay over against the city], and the name of
that city was Mespila[3]. The Medes once dwelt in it. The basement was 10
made of polished stone full of shells; fifty feet was the breadth of
it, and fifty feet the height; and on this basement was reared a wall
of brick, the breadth whereof was fifty feet and the height thereof
four hundred; and the circuit of the wall was six parasangs. Hither,
as the story goes, Medea[4], the king's wife, betook herself in flight
what time the Medes lost their empire at the hands of the Persians. To
this city also the king of the Pesians laid siege, but could not take
it either by length of days or strength of hand. But Zeus sent
amazement on the inhabitants thereof, and so it was taken.

[3] Opposite Mosul, the north-west portion of the ancient Nineveh,
about eighteen miles above Larissa. The circuit of Nineveh is said